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Thousands Without Power As Winter Storm Hunter Clobbers Northeast, New England

Sean Breslin
Published: January 13, 2018

Thousands were without power Saturday as Winter Storm Hunter clobbered the Northeast and New England with up to 16 inches of snow falling in some areas of New York.

According to poweroutage.us, more than 10,000 residents were without power in New Jersey Saturday morning, while nearly 7,000 remained without power in Massachusetts.

Ten hikers were rescued overnight after becoming trapped by two swollen creeks in New Hampshire's White Mountain National Forest, the Associated Press reports. No injuries were reported.

On Friday, a large pileup closed Interstate 40 in western Tennessee. Several hundred drivers remained trapped on the highway, some for up to seven hours, AP reports. The highway was finally cleared by 2 a.m. Saturday.

Social media posts showed a lengthy line of damaged vehicles, including many semi trucks, near mile marker 120 in the eastbound lanes. No injuries or deaths were reported.

Meanwhile, treacherous travel conditions prompted the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency to declare a state of emergency Friday. The agency asked residents to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary.

Wintry precipitation fell as far south as Louisiana and Mississippi Friday morning, and in northern Alabama, schools and government offices were closed as officials asked residents to stay off the roads. North of Shreveport, Louisiana, Interstate 49 was closed in both directions for several hours Friday morning. The closure impacted a stretch of the roadway all the way to Mira, not far from the Arkansas border.

Later in the day, southbound Interstate 55 in Tate County, Mississippi, was temporarily closed after a tractor-trailer overturned on the icy road. No injuries were reported.

Parts of Arkansas and western Tennessee also reported wintry conditions on roadways Friday morning, making travel hazardous. Interstates 40 and 55 in Arkansas were temporarily closed Friday morning after many drivers lost control of their vehicles on the icy roadways, according to the Associated Press. Memphis police said they responded to more than 100 crashes Friday.

Nashville bridges iced over rapidly in the morning hours, and authorities urged residents to stay home. Kentucky's legislative session was called off Friday, the AP also reported. In Paducah, Kentucky, truck stop employee Paige Harville told the AP she had a slow drive Friday morning and couldn't take back roads because they were covered in sleet.

"It was pretty slick," she told the AP. "I had to drive pretty slow."

Further north, schools in Indianapolis and other Indiana cities were canceled Friday with half a foot of snow or more expected in parts of the state. Travel advisories were issued for much of southern Indiana, the AP reported.

Icy roads caused an increase in crashes Friday morning in Michigan's Lower Peninsula, and several counties canceled school. According to data compiled by PowerOutage.us, more than 25,000 homes and businesses were in the dark statewide Friday afternoon.

In the Northeast, a combination of wind, wet weather and wintry conditions from this storm system knocked out power to a combined 60,000 homes and businesses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York Friday morning.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.